


Power Imbalance

by peoriapeoria



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gender Issues, M/M, Meta, Power Imbalance, Queer History, Slash, non-fiction, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23394370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: How can slash allow the sidestepping and lamp shading of power in romantic/sexual relationships?
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers, Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg, Writer & Characters
Kudos: 13
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge, Non-Fiction Works:The Meta





	Power Imbalance

Power is one of the attractions of fanfiction. While I didn't begin by writing slash, I did start writing it and haven't stopped. Some of that was in removing gender dynamics I could focus on character specifics. Blair Sandburg and Jim Ellison could both be a place to sprawl across while writing them together. Since identification with the protagonist is baked into media, it's an elegant solution.

In my current MCU, I write Phlint (Phil Coulson/Clint Barton), Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers, Stucky (Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers) and Steggy (Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers) primarily with occasional other pairings like Stony, Tony/Rhodey and Fury/Coulson. In this meta, I'm going to focus on the Phlint with some relevant Banner/Rogers (since those are from the same series).

I didn't get on the ShieldHusbands train right at the start, I first had to go raid the comics to have a Hawkeye I could work with. Oddly enough, a g-man comes with enough baggage to unpack just from his black suit and shades, even if the sunglasses have to come from an entirely different movie franchise. Armed with a Clint Barton reading, the process gave a new spin on an old trope. Because, if one strips it down to who Clint was, a kid that grew up in the circus he ran away to, even as the greatest marksman, there is a serious power differential between that and Nick Fury's right hand, Agent Agent.

Coulson, who managed to be the audience surrogate despite all writing to the contrary (you make a God the protagonist, who's the audience going to side with? Okay, in a more perfect world, Dr. Jane Foster. But she didn't get to threaten Tony Stark and well, relatable.) had been killed by Joss Whedon. That's like breading a character in fan-nip.

Competency porn. Agent Coulson certainly puts his foot in his mouth talking to Steve Rogers, but he otherwise is up to the challenges SHIELD provides. Hawkeye in the comics is both a dumpster fire of a man and the world's greatest marksman. In the MCU, add the two characters together and shake. Effective and ridiculously odd couple off-duty.

That's the premise I write Phlint from. Much as Clint Barton brought in Natasha, I have wrote how Agent Coulson brought in Clint--I didn't take the fanon route of shooting him in the leg. The second thing I added to this, is I take as stated Phil's number one Captain America fanboy status seriously. This was helped in that I didn't see Agents of SHIELD until much later. Thus, I can 'interprete' the ethical shortcuts as that, things that probably make Coulson not sleep so well at night as opposed to intrinsic.

The interest, to me, in writing Phlint from this premise is how the power imbalance can be 'solved' so the pairing can proceed. Yes, there 'being a problem' is baked into Western Romance conventions; slash is a nibbling away not a radical sweeping of the decks. Taking Phil as fanboy seriously helps here, because he can continue to see an impediment past when it's not as opposed to the all too real world condition of men in power thinking that's just fine and natural and going for 'relationships' they shouldn't.

The Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers I write in the same continuity deals with age, Bruce's issues related to domestic violence and with gender-bending. My version of the Serum had some 'side effects' contrary to Canon. Clint and Phil are dealing with the age issue in a more real world way.

I probably have brought some of my Fannish Baggage in deciding that Coulson was approaching 40 when he Acquired a 22 year old circus performer for SHIELD. The 25 year old specialist Clint becomes however you slice it is a man, just as Canon Steve is one before and after Project: Rebirth. And in my writing, that's because of Coulson.

My Coulson doesn't treat Clint solely as a weapon. He both improves Clint's skills because SHIELD needs more and he shares things that give more context to Clint about the world he's saving. Because, at the time, that's what both of them think SHIELD is doing.

One of the things I do attempt to do in my MCU writing is wrestle with the ways of power being used in the world. That's the Acting when it would be easy not to, and Not Acting when again it would be all too easy to act. For as much as I believe CA:CW made a hash of that ethical conundrum , I do find it a very important question, especially now.

Phlint for me tends to be where the personal is the most political. Steve and Bruce get married in a very different world than they did. Marriage equality was already secured by the time the personal questions have been surmounted for Bruce and Steve. I was using the political as I established Clint and Phil's timeline. The secrecy of intelligence work bleeds into the navigation of identity.

Not everyone is taking this tack. Everyone approaches writing fanfiction differently. I've written Sam Wilson as one half of a romantic comedy and I'll be letting Teresa explore more than an origin story soon. I'm still behind on Col. Rhodes content. But I find there are a few stories that can be told where the fact Clint and Phil are white guys isn't a default. Reframing certain aspects of Nick Fury's MCU Canon presentation takes a bit more time.


End file.
